Find ancestors in Civil War letters, War of 1812 letters, Revolutionary War letters. Search your ancestry and find your genealogy. Find your roots and hear your ancestors' words. Discover your origins in old letters as ancestors tell their stories and details of family history. Learn how to preserve old documents, family treasures and heirlooms.

Coffin Plate Collection Private collection of over 400 coffin plates with names of ancestors plus birth and death dates

Olive Tree Newsletter

JOIN the FREE Olive Tree Genealogy Newsletter. Be the first to know of genealogy events and freebies. Find out when new genealogy databases are put online. Get tips for finding your elusive brick-wall ancestor.

Enter your surname for a list of genealogy books with fascinating facts and history about your family name

Sarah Elizabeth Watt Miller

"I had a young cow to die a few weeks ago and thais was a steer got crippled the other day now if I have not got enough to discorege me I do not no what is enough..." Sarah Elizabeth Watt Miller 1863

May 3, [18]63

Dear Sister

I received Janes letter last mail and was not onley disaponted but mad I had been looking for her every day for the last five weeks and then to be diseponted it was almost more then I could stand it looks like everything has been working aganst me ever since Johnson left we have been lusing all the time it comenced with fire last fall the fence got burned so that I had to lug $30 dallars wath of railes Then in the winter our mair a three year old went to jump a flank fence and killed herself and left me without a teem if I had her now I could sell her for one hundred and fifty dollers she would have rased a colt this summer if she had lived I have not but one horse left and he is brock out with runing warts This spring and is not able to do anything I had a young cow to die a few weeks ago and thais was a steer got crippled the other day now if I have not got enough to discorege me I do not no what is enough

I no thair is but little to incourag you to come out hear except to stay with me I have got no way of going aroung onley walking and the people would not suit you but we thought you could sacrafice such plisure one summer and see how I have to live if I had no children I would not live as I do one week your having the chills is no excuse for if you come out hear you will soon get well as we have no such thing hear. The children was dredfuly disaponted when they heard Jane was not coming The directer of our school has been waiting on jane to come he has now hired a Teacher for one mounth and sayes she can still have it but if she does not come and we like this teacher we are going to keep her 5 months it is to comence the 18 of this month wheat looks beutiful we have had a nice dry spring they are going to plant corn this week I want you to rite soon

[Sarah Elizabeth Watt Miller]

Wishing you had an ancestor photograph? Check out the 1800s photographs and antique photo albums on Lost Faces. There are over 3,500 photos in this growing genealogy collection

Date: Sat Mar 16 2002
Name: Leslie Hoag Hope
E- mail: lahope@dslextreme.com
Notes: This letter was written by my gggrandmother Sarah Elizabeth Watt Miller shortly after her husband Johnson Miller left for the Civil War with his regiment, 40th reg. Iowa volunteers. He would not return. The sister she is writing to is probably Lavinia Bryand Watt. Jane is her other sister. Sarah was born June 06, 1834 in Coberg, Ontario, Canada. Her parents, James Watt and Elizabeth Boag, were immigrants from Scotland. Her father was b.in Berwickshire, her mother supposedly in the Shetland Islands. Besides the two sisters above she had a third sister who drowned in the St. lawrence River at the age of 3. Her two brothers are William A. Watt and Robert B. Watt. The family moved to IN. Her parents are buried at Jefferson Cemetery, Clinton Co, IN. For additional information about Sarah Watt Miller see the notes for the Johnson Miller letter I submitted. This letter was provided by my second cousin, Shawna Forsdick of Boise, ID.